Is the pricing of ENS domains centralized?

Question

I bought some names at ENS domains for $5 / year now. Can they change the pricing a few years later when I have to renew my names to be $500 / year?

I'm not familiar with ERC-721. Tried to read through the docs but still not sure of this.

So I guess:

1. The pricing of domain renewal at ENS Domains is totally up to their (governance) whim?
2. Is it technically possible to apply pricing discrimination for different domain NFTs created at ENS domains so they renew at different and arbitrary prices?

Answer 1

ENS is governed by its constitution: https://docs.ens.domains/v/governance/ens-dao-constitution

Article II is about fees.

II. Fees are primarily an incentive mechanism

The primary purpose of registration fees is as an incentive mechanism to prevent the namespace becoming overwhelmed with speculatively registered names. A secondary purpose is to provide enough revenue to the DAO to fund ongoing development and improvement of ENS. ENS governance will not enact any fee other than for these purposes.

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If you had any ENS registrations before November 1 2021, you can claim ENS tokens which will allow you (or your delegate) to vote in ENS governance. You have until May 4 2022 to claim your tokens.

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At the technical level, pricing is done via PriceOracle, whose code can be changed by owner.

The code sees the name being registered and can apply whatever logic to it. Here is the current pricing where you can get the idea that it factors in the length of the name in the price:

function price(string calldata name, uint expires, uint duration) external view override returns(uint) {
    uint len = name.strlen();
    if(len > rentPrices.length) {
        len = rentPrices.length;
    }
    require(len > 0);
    
    uint basePrice = rentPrices[len - 1].mul(duration);
    basePrice = basePrice.add(_premium(name, expires, duration));

    return attoUSDToWei(basePrice);
}

Currently, the owner of the ENS contracts is the ENS root multisig, but as written Nov 1 2021, will be updated to the ENS DAO:

ENS has always been an open public utility that belongs to the community. The core components of ENS are decentralized and self-running (e.g., no one can take away another person’s .ETH name), but there are a few things that require some human discretion. We believe that both ENS and the DAO space have matured enough that now is the time to pass ENS governance over to the community via the creation of a DAO and the $ENS governance token.

Specifically, we wish to have the ENS root multisig pass over control of the existing ENS treasury, its future funds, and control of the .ETH registrar contract that is in charge of the pricing and registration mechanism for .ETH names. The first order of business for the ENS DAO will be to formally request these from the ENS root multisig key holders.